It is desirable, for vehicle strengthening members, to maximize impact energy absorption and bending resistance while minimizing mass per unit length of the strengthening member.
When a compressive force is exerted longitudinally on a strengthening member, for example a force due to a front impact load on a vehicle's front rail or other strengthening member in the engine compartment, the strengthening member can crush in a longitudinal direction to absorb the energy of the collision. In addition, when a bending force is exerted on a strengthening member, for example a force due to a side impact load on a vehicle's front side sill, B-pillar or other strengthening member, the strengthening member can bend to absorb the energy of the collision.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,451 discloses a strengthening member having concave portions at the four corners of a basic rectangular cross section, resulting in four U-shaped portions forming an angle of 90 degrees with each other. To avoid cracks at the concave portions at the four corners and to increase strength, the concave portions have increased thickness and hardness. Increased thickness and hardness of the corner portions is disclosed to be achievable only by drawing or hydroforming, and therefore decreases manufacturing feasibility while increasing the mass per unit length of the strengthening member.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,451 makes reference to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H8-337183, which also discloses a strengthening member having concave portions at the four corners of a basic rectangular cross section, resulting in four U-shaped portions forming an angle of 90 degrees with each other. U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,451 states that its thickened concave portions provide improved crush resistance and flexural strength over H8-337183.
It may be desirable to provide a strengthening member configured to achieve the same or similar strength increase as provided by the thickened corners, while minimizing mass per unit length of the member and maintaining a high manufacturing feasibility.
It may further be desirable to provide a strengthening member that can achieve increased energy absorption and a more stable axial collapse when forces such as front and side impact forces are exerted on the strengthening member. Additionally, it may be desirable to provide a strengthening member that possesses improved noise-vibration-harshness performance due to work hardening on its corners.
In various applications, a strengthening member can be used as a crush can attached directly to a bumper beam in alignment with a vehicle's front rails. Crush cans may, for example, manage impact energy and intrusion during a frontal collision. To protect a vehicle's occupants in high speed crash events, a crush can (as part of a vehicle's front end) acts as an energy absorber to absorb a maximum amount of impact energy within a limited crush distance (i.e., a crush can must absorb a high amount of impact energy over a short crush distance). To minimize vehicle repair costs in low speed crash events, however, a crush can must both absorb energy with a limited stroke and be sequentially collapsible within a low speed protection zone to avoid damage to costly vehicle components.
It may be desirable, therefore, to provide a method of optimizing a strengthening member to provide crush cans that are progressive, stable, and energy efficient in both high and low speed frontal impact events.